CV Childress, S Alan.pdf S. Alan Childress
- Conrad Meyer III Professor of Civil Procedure
- achildr@tulane.edu
- Weinmann Hall, Room 351-A
- 504-865-5829
Education
- PhD, 1995, University of California at Berkeley
- MA, 1986, University of California at Berkeley
- JD, 1982, Harvard University
- BA, 1979, University of Alabama
Biography
Alan Childress’s specialties are the legal profession and professional responsibility, along with appellate courts. He also teaches torts and evidence and has written about jurisdiction, emotional distress torts, and the First Amendment.
He is co-author of a three-volume treatise, Federal Standards of Review (LexisNexis, 4th ed. 2010), and a founding editor of The Legal Profession Blog, which was named to the ABA Journal’s “Blawg 100 Hall of Fame.” His annotated version of Holmes’ The Common Law was published in 2010. Since 2020, he has published a series of books on Louisiana notary law and practice.
Childress, who joined the Tulane faculty in 1988, clerked for the late Hon. Henry Politz of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, practiced appellate law in California, and holds a Ph.D. in Jurisprudence & Social Policy from Berkeley. His dissertation analyzed the roles of judges and juries in constitutional adjudication such as defamation cases.
Selected Publications
Law Review Articles
No Physical Harm, No Foul? Trusting Workable Limiting Principles to Emotional Distress Torts, 49 TEXAS TECH. L. REV. 703 (2017)
A Primer on Standards of Review in Federal Civil Appeals, 293 FEDERAL RULES DECISIONS 156- 223 (West Publ. Co., Jan. 2014)
Revolving Trapdoors: Preserving Sufficiency Review of the Civil Jury After Unitherm and Amended Rule 50, 26 REVIEW OF LITIGATION 239-264 (Univ. of Texas, Spr. 2007)
Mentoring Up and Down, 80 TULANE L. REV. 1581-1583 (2006) (In Memoriam)
Taking Jury Verdicts Seriously, 54 SMU L. REV. 1739-1747 (2001) (Commentary, in reply to David Crump and William Dorsaneo)
Jury Verdicts: The Whole Greater Than Pieces, 53 SMU L. REV. 1539-1545 (2000) (Commentary, in reply to William Dorsaneo)
The “Soft Science” of Discretion: A Reply to Ghosh’s “Search for Scientific Validity in Evidence Law,” 8 THE DIGEST 31-36 (2000) (Response to Shubha Ghosh)
The Empty Concept of Self-Censorship, 70 TULANE L. REV. 1969-1977 (1996) (Essay)
Constitutional Fact and Process: A First Amendment Model of Censorial Discretion, 70 TULANE L. REV. 1229-1358 (1996)
Jury Review in Diversity Cases: An Erie Update, 4 THE DIGEST 39-72 (1996) A 1995 Primer on Standards of Review in Federal Civil Appeals, 161 FEDERAL RULES DECISIONS 123-47 (West, 1995)
Judicial Review and Diversity Jurisdiction: Solving an Irrepressible Erie Mystery?, 47 SMU L. REV. 271-327 (1994)
Pornography, “Serious Rape,” and Statistics: A Reply to Dr. Kutchinsky, 26 LAW & SOCIETY REV. 457-61 (1992) (Response to Berl Kutchinsky)
Reel “Rape Speech”: Violent Pornography and the Politics of Harm, 25 LAW & SOCIETY REV. 177-214 (1991) (Review Essay)
Sanctions on Appeal: An Outline of Rules and Recent Cases, 10 FIFTH CIRCUIT REPORTER 687- 708 (West, June 1993) (with Terry E. Allbritton)
Federal Summary Judgments on Appeal: Review and Jurisdiction, 9 FIFTH CIRCUIT REPORTER 513-25 (West, Feb. 1992)
Historicizing Law Schools: An Alternative to the Socratic Tunnel Vision?, 38 BUFFALO L. REV. 315-24 (1990) (Book Review) (review of Robert Stevens, LAW SCHOOL, and others)
A Standards of Review Primer: Federal Civil Appeals, 125 FEDERAL RULES DECISIONS 319-47 (West, 1989)
A New Era for Summary Judgments: Recent Shifts at the Supreme Court, 116 FEDERAL RULES DECISIONS 183-94 (West, 1987)
“Clearly Erroneous”: Judicial Review Over District Courts in the Eighth Circuit and Beyond, 51 MISSOURI L. REV. 93-189 (1986)
Standards of Review in Criminal Appeals: Fifth Circuit Illustration and Analysis, 60 TULANE L. REV. 461-561 (1986) (with Martha S. Davis)
Standards of Review in Eleventh Circuit Civil Appeals, 9 NOVA L.J. 257-330 (1985)
The Hazards of Computer-Assisted Research to the Legal Profession, 55 OKLA. B.J. 1531-36 (Aug. 1984)
The Baby and the Bathwater: Developing a Positive Socratic Method, 18 LAW TEACHER 95-109 (U.K., Sweet & Maxwell, 1984)
Standards of Review in Federal Civil Appeals: Fifth Circuit Illustration and Analysis, 29 LOYOLA L. REV. 851-923 (1983)
Books
BECOME A NOTARY PUBLIC IN LOUISIANA
Quid Pro Books Publishing Co., 2021
FEDERAL STANDARDS OF REVIEW, FOURTH EDITION, 2010 (and Third, Second, and First editions)
Matthew Bender/LEXIS-NEXIS Publishing Co.
Volume 1: Civil Cases and General Review Principles
Volume 2: Criminal Cases and Habeas Appeals (with Martha S. Davis)
Volume 3: Administrative Appeals (with Martha S. Davis)